Without limiting the scope of the invention, its background is described in connection with antiblooming structures for charge coupled device image sensors, as an example. Antiblooming action is important for operation of CCD sensor imaging scenes whose range of illumination intensities greatly exceeds the dynamic range of the sensor. With strong antiblooming action, the optical system can be adjusted for optimum performance at low light levels, and the high overloads associated with the bright portions of the scene can be absorbed by the antiblooming. Two major forms of antiblooming exist in the prior art. One uses charge recombination at the semiconductor-insulator interface to remove excess charge while the other forms a barrier and drain structure next to or underneath the pixel that removes any charge in excess of full well. Disadvantages of the charge recombination antiblooming include: large size; limited charge removal rate which is particularly a problem for short duration light pulses; constant clocking which causes large power consumption; and large interface state density which creates problems for dark current generation which is increased by high interface state density. A disadvantage of the prior art barrier and drain structures is that the size of the structures are not readily reduced due to the two dimensional effects of the potential profile and due to the necessary tolerances which are present in the mask alignment process.